Friday, December 24, 2004

The Conservative Movement started out by believing in specific things, like ending Communism, shrinking the size of government, etc. They gained strength by standing up for those positions. In the 70's and 80's, that changed to being against whatever the Liberals were for. They have been able to maintain their strength, but they're not making any more gains.

The Progressive Movement can't start out by simply being for whatever the Conservatives are against. We need to find a way to connect with the people who are anti-abortion, and get them to agree to help us move forward beyond the illusion that this issue is black and white. The Democratic Party has room for people on both sides of the argument, we just need to frame our position to get their support instead of their ire. Like Howard Dean says below, while we should not change our principles, we can change our vocabulary.

I don't like abortion. I wish it didn't have to happen. But that's not the same as outlawing it altogether. I see the position of Choice as the middle ground between two extremes, not an extreme by itself. The extremes I see are 1) no one may and 2) everyone must. The Christian right wing wants to create a world where no one may have an abortion and end a life before it has a chance to begin. China has created a world where abortions are mandated after the first child. I don't want to live in either one of these worlds, and I don't want to legislate it either way. I want us to create a environment where abortions are unnecessary, rather than illegal or mandated. So if the Christian right wing wants to reduce the number of abortions by promoting abstience as well as contraception, I can support and help with that. But if they want to push the abortions that do occur out of a sanitized medical facility and into the street, I will fight against it. That is what occured before Roe v. Wade, and I'm not interested in going backward.

I believe that this position is shared by Planned Parenthood, although we should contact their Public Relations office for the language that they use if we want to continue talking about them. I have heard that 2004 was one of the best years that Planned Parenthood Western Washington has had, both financially and by a few other measures. One of those measures was the number of abortion procedures performed. In 2004, that number went down for the first time in several years. Let's keep the number going down, safely.

Thursday, December 23, 2004

This is a statement I prepared for the DFA Phone Card presentation on December 29th, 2004.

My name is Chad Lupkes, and I was born here in Seattle. I was in the US Navy from 1988 to 1994. I would like to speak about what being an American means to me. To do that, I want to review the colors on our flag. Those colors are red, white and blue.

Blue represents opportunity. The blue sky on the horizon, a horizon that we constantly strive to reach. We may be distracted by the treasures and comfort that we find, but we must continue to strive to achieve, to learn new things, and find new paths.

White represents fairness. The white paper that we use to vote, the paper that we use to write our laws. With the rainbow of ideas, ideology, race and culture, the law must be written to be fair to everyone. This helps to ensure that we leave nobody behind as we strive toward that horizon.

Red represents sacrifice. The red blood that is spilled on the battlefield, the tears that we shed in memory of those who have sacrificed everything. The sweat that comes from our efforts to regain what was lost. We must never forget those that we have lost, and we must be there to help the ones who have sacrificed for us.

This is why we are here today, to acknowledge and honor our veterans and active military. To provide them with the opportunity to reach out and reconnect to family and friends, and rejoin our community as we continue to strive toward that blue horizon, writing our laws to leave no one behind.

Monday, June 21, 2004

As soon as the Space Tourism becomes viable, I think all elected officials on a Federal Level should be required to see the curvature of the Earth. If they could understand that the political boundaries don't really exist and that the world is actually a very small place might be a positive step in government.

You asked the first caller why we should care about going out into space because of all the problems here at home. The reason why, in my opinion, is because the amount of resources beyond earth are just waiting for us, and all we have to do is get to them. Imagine infinite free energy would free mankind from fighting over energy sources, building materials enough to build several thousand Earths to give everyone enough space to explore and explore the universe, and even our next stage of evolution. I would say that the investments and sacrifices are worth it.

Harry Potter Rocks on the IMAX! We got up early enough to get downtown by 11, and stood in line from 12:30 to 1:30. The boys were familiar enough with movie lines and Daniel found a friend to talk to. We had heard a lot of people say that the content of the movie might not be appropriate for Shea because of his age. He understood the movie almost as well as Daniel did, and they both knew that it was make-believe. Great movie!

We met Dad at the fountain, and had lunch in the Center House. Daniel found some juggling balls that he's practicing with, and then we went to a park to shoot some more archery. Sand Point is better than Gas Works for kites, so we'll be going back.

Saturday, June 19, 2004

Not to bad a day! We found my old bow and arrow set, and my mom brought down a smaller set for Daniel. He loves it, so we brought it home.

Mom did pretty well, except that everyone decided to go to Shrek 2 in the morning, but then later in the day decided that they couldn't do it for two reasons. First, because they couldn't afford it. Second, because they wanted Lowell to be able to spend time with the boys when he got home. The first reason I can understand, but that put the responsibility on me to fulfill the promise. The second reason I also understood, except that when Lowell got home all he did was eat dinner and lay on the couch. No energy after a full day of work, and I didn't really expect him to have much.

Friday, June 18, 2004

What the heck is on Daniel's mind?! He likes games, obviously. Especially on the computer he likes Pinball. So, he asked Debi if he could play Pinball on her computer. He played for about 10 minutes, then realized he would not be able to beat her scores on the scoreboard. I don't think anyone could, she's at 7,500,000. So, what does he do? He clears the scores.

Debi exploded. She had been working on those scores for years! When we asked him why he would do such a thing, he said that he wanted to see his name on the scoreboard, and he wasn't able to beat her scores so he changed the rules so he could see his name. In other words, he cheated. He is now banned from Debi's computer until she can get those scores back to where they were.

When I spoke to him this morning about it, I discovered that he does this at home all the time. Instead of always trying to get better at the game, he would clear the scores so he didn't have to work so hard.

There are several concerns I have about this episode. First, that he would think about doing this kind of cheating at all. He's 8, and 8 year olds do things like this. But only if they are either shown that it is ok, and/or if they are not corrected when they do it. Or if they are not caught doing it. Daniel and Shea are the only players of the game on their home computers, and Shea doesn't care. So I can't say that I blame Sarah or Eric for not noticing what he was doing and correct it. Second, the fact that he was willing to erase the scores to make it easier on himself shows that he is not pushing himself to be better, and he's not being pushed as much as he could have by others.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Captain Kirk was talking about the Kobiashi Maru, and saying that he changed the rules so that there was a way out of an impossible situation. In the real world, he would have been kicked out of the Academy. Gene Roddenbury decided to use this as a positive aspect of the character. And it's now influencing our culture. Cheating is not acceptable in the real world, unless we allow it to be ok. Sure, we can set priorities and not care as much about the unimportant things, but we should always be teaching our children not to cheat.

Keep pushing for higher scores instead of starting at zero. Keep working on improving your skills in sports instead of changing the rules to make the sport easier. Keep learning and reading new books instead of books you have already read. Strive for higher standards, and keep reaching for the stars. Otherwise we'll never get there.

Another Lesson Learned: Don't try to drive to Greenlake Park. We could not find a parking spot, so we went to Roosevelt Park instead. It's close, familiar and there's actually parking!

Thursday, June 17, 2004

These hearings are fascinating.I believe that 9-11 was allowed to happen because of the assumptions that our government and military had regarding threats.There was no possible way to prepare for what occurred, and the next attack will come in ways that are just as unpredictable.

These people hate America.The only way to stop these attacks is to prevent them from occurring.The only way to prevent them from occurring is to prevent people from wanting to do them in the first place.My question to our government and all candidates for federal office is not how they are preparing for the next attack, but how they are working to prevent them.What are we doing now and what will we do in the future to make people around the world STOP HATING AMERICA.

The 9-11 Commission hearings which ended today let us know that Seattle was originally on the list of targets for a total of 10 hijacked airliners. There were intense internal struggles within the 9-11 terrorist cell that delayed and downsized the plot. The commission reported yesterday that there was 'no credible evidence' that Saddam Hussein helped al-Qaeda target the United States. President Bush today continued to reassert an al-Qaeda - Iraq link. Military and civilian aviation officials were not prepared for terrorists turning jet airliners into armed missiles. American Airlines flight 77, the flight that eventually hit the Pentagon, was lost by air traffic controllers for 36 minutes. In this hour we'll review the information uncovered by the Commission and try to sort out what it means. What did we learn about what happened and how to prevent it in the future? Call 206 543 5869 KUOW, long distance 1 800 289, 5869 KUOW, or write to us - conversation at KUOW.org.

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